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New Testament In a Year: September 1 – 1 Corinthians 13

1 Corinthians 13(1-13)The Way of Love
In the previous chapter (12), Paul talked about the variety of different gifts and abilities that God has made available for every believer. While those gifts and abilities are important and valuable, they mean nothing and profit us nothing if we do not have the love of God. Love is the highest gift. It is the more excellent way. Even above faith and hope, love is greater because it will last forever.

What is love? Someone once pointed out that the word ‘love’ could be replaced with Christ every time it is mentioned in this chapter, because love is Christ and Christ is love. That someone was correct:

The Way of Christ

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not Christ, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not Christ, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not Christ, I gain nothing.

Christ is patient and kind; Christ does not envy or boast; He is not arrogant or rude. He does not insist on his own way; He is not irritable or resentful; He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Christ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Christ never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away…

So now faith, hope, and Christ abide, these three; but the greatest of these is Christ.